Adders Find a Friend in Nigel

January 2008

Mention snakes, and some people will grimace. Not so the fifty or so who crowded into St Andrew's Church Hall, Presteigne, to hear Nigel Hand give a talk for the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust on our local reptiles.  Nigel is pictured above with Simon Green (left) with a corn snake and Frank Ackland (right) with a Sinaloan milk snake (photo by Joan Payne). Also pictured is ‘Toucan', a male adder photographed at a local site with his characteristic neck marking resembling the shape of a Toucan bird (photo by Nigel Hand).

Nigel is a recognised national expert on reptile and has appeared on BBC TV's ‘The One Show'. He told the audience that the four species of reptile found in the Welsh Marches - the adder, grass snake, common lizard and slow worm - are all are suffering from loss of habitat due to housing development, intensive agriculture, mineral extraction and forestry. However adders face an extra threat - some people deliberately destroy them because they think they are dangerous. In fact, says Nigel, you are far more likely to be killed by a wasp than an adder, and no-one in Britain has died from an adder bite since 1975.

According to Nigel, we can help adders and other reptiles to survive by managing gardens, farmland and open spaces with them in mind. They need open ground so that they can bask in the sun and scrub for cover, while log and brash piles can provide good refuge and basking sites. If you think that all adders look alike, he showed the audience photos of particular individuals which he has come to recognise by their markings and has monitored in the wild for several years. He has even given them names, like ‘Toucan' whose neck markings resemble a toucan bird.

As Adders are hibernating at the moment, Nigel brought along two exotic snakes instead, which he had bred in captivity: a corn snake which lives in Florida and a Sinaloan milk snake from western Mexico. The audience were invited to gently touch and handle them.  Although some members of the audience were reluctant to take up this invitation, many others - particularly the younger members - accepted enthusiastically. They found that the snakes felt smooth, dry and pleasant and they were enchanted by their rich colours, intricate markings and delicate flicking tongues which are used as a sense organ to explore the world.

The Chairman of the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, Joan Payne, said how pleased she was at the large turnout for the talk. She added that the large audiences that the Trust gets at its events shows how interested people are in their local wildlife and how much they value it and want to protect it.